SOCC Challenge

I've never tried SOCC before, so in this Zentangle I have my first attempt in the middle, and my second attempt in the upper right corner (I think I got better!). It was fun to try Bunzo for the first time, too. I haven't done a Diva Challenge in months and it's good to get back to it :)

Have a great day, everyone!

Auraknot

The Diva challenged us this week to use Zentangle's latest tangle called Auraknot. This tangle is so cool, and sure to impress friends and family! It doesn't play to my strengths, however, since I am parallel-lined challenged. Still, I managed to come up with something and am totally enjoying seeing everyone else's designs - they rock!

Home

I live in Oregon's beautiful wine country. My town is extremely small, in fact, we don't even have a stop light! But there is a larger town only 5 minutes away which has all the fast-food and art stores I need:) In addition to tons of vineyards, there are also lots of dairy farms, and farms that grow corn, hay, clover, and even blueberries. Has anyone out there ever bought a plant grown by Monrovia Nursery? Well, that's only about 15 minutes away from me, too. There's even a Trappist Abbey down the road from my house:)

I've tried to incorporate some of these things in my tile, like the grapevine for the vineyards, Archer for the Abbey, and Vache for the dairy farms. My little town is the 3rd oldest town in Oregon and is reported to be haunted. Yep, the whole town has been cursed by a witch who haunts our only graveyard! 'Nzeppel reminds me of cobwebs when it's filled in, which is why I put it in the tile, too.

I'm not overly fond of my work this week, in fact, I might go so far as to use the four-letter 'H' word, but I don't really have time to do another, so I'm forced to put it in here (and you're forced to look at it!:)

I have so enjoyed getting glimpses into everyone's lives this week! I hope you liked the small look into mine:)

Cadent Challenge

I can't believe I actually got my entry for this week's challenge in on Monday! Yay! I love Cadent and I use it often. I have to admit, I don't do much tangleation with this tangle because why mess with perfection? But I tried to do some here. I hope you like it:)

Circle Challenge

The challenge this week is all about eccentric circles. I love circles!!! I use them all the time in my other artwork and it's fun to dedicate this week's tangling to them. Happy circles, everyone:)
...time passes...
Oh No! I just re-read the challenge and discovered that eccentric circles shouldn't be perfectly circular:( I'm bummed, but I think I'll just leave this tile as my entry this week, cause I kinda like it:)

Pea-Nuckle

The Diva's Challenge this week is to use the new tangle by Molly Hollibaugh called Pea-Nuckle. I didn't do super-great when I first practiced it, but it became easier as I did this tile. I notice that I need more connecting lines to make it look balanced, but on the whole, I'm happy with this!

This week I also made my first Mandala. I used my new blank Zendala tile and, thanks to Margaret Bremner and the Mandala video from her blog, I went to work. But I'm not sure if I created a Mandala or a Zendala? Another hard part I found was knowing when to stop and when to keep adding things. I think I was probably very careful not to do too much in this piece.

Have a great day, everyone!

Diva Challenge 70!

Brown is not generally on my list of favorite colors. The only good thing that's brown is chocolate! Even so, I pulled out my brown Micron pen and got to work. This piece is another where I used specific shapes as the string. I call this 'Shards' because it reminds me of shards of glass. Oh, and I couldn't not do any color, so I added a red string:)

On another note, I'm so excited because I got my Zentangle order in the mail today. I bought the Ensemble tiles and also the Zendala tiles. Yep, I'm going to dive into the round world of zendalas! Wish me luck:)

(I had to edit this to say 'It's SO not fair to follow Simone on the list:)

Scratchboard Zentangle

Every Tuesday morning I help in my daughter's art class at school. Last week they were using a cool thing called Scratchboard, which is a thick paper with a colored coating on top. You use special tools to 'scratch' the coating off to reveal the color underneath. The most popular scratchboards are black with white underneath, but there are also available with rainbow colors under the black, or white under a metallic coating. It's really fun to play with, but does require a bit of practice, as I found out!

Yesterday I was finishing up my piece during the 6th grade art class, and some of the kids were watching me - they loved it! They thought Zentangle was the coolest thing ever! And their favorite pattern was 'Groovy,' so I thought I would use this piece for the Diva Challenge this week:)

And on a purely personal level, I'm excited about publishing my book, Yorkshire Mysteries, as you can see on the right side of my blog. I wrote the book a while ago, knowing that getting it published would be a huge longshot. But with the advent of online 'publishing on demand' I am finally able to hold my book in my hands and put it on my bookshelf along with some of my favorite books. It's a real thrill!

Have a good day, everyone:)

Bigger is Better!

Yay for big, bold Zentangles!

Diva Challenge 68

I enjoyed this week's Diva Challenge, which was to use only Strircles and Hibred in a tile. I'm a huge fan of Strircles, but haven't used Hibred in a while. I tried to do something completely different this time, and didn't use a string, but instead used shapes as the foundation of my piece. I kinda like it! :)

Diva Challenge 67

Not super happy with this entry :( It started out so great with Sampson in the middle, but then somehow went horribly wrong! Oh well, live and learn. But if you want to see something that I'm actually proud of, follow this link to my previous blog showing four of my circle paintings. :)

Have a good day, everyone!

Circle Paintings

 

I've been having so much fun creating these paintings, using circles as my theme. They are on Claybord and I used acrylics, oil pastels, and Sakura metallic pens. So far I've only done 5"x7" pieces, but next I'm going to go all out and do an 8"x10"! Wish me luck:)

Aura Challenge

For this week's Diva Challenge I chose to use auras not only on the outside of tangles, but also on the inside. I used Florz in the upper left and did auras inside each square. With Strircles, I put extra circles inside each circle, and on the bottom right I used Beeline with auras inside each different section. I think it looks pretty cool that way:) Then I used auras on the outside of Whirly Bird, Organza, and my tangle Natz in the bottom left.

I enjoyed this challenge because it made me think outside the box, so to speak, and change the way I normally do these tangles. Thanks, Diva!

Diva Challenge #65

Hey, Huggy Bear. Not sure if I like you or not yet, but it's early days... Maybe we'll grow to appreciate each other!

Diva Challenge #64

This week's Diva Challenge is for everyone to use the same 'Fortuneteller' string. I really enjoyed doing it last night. It was a great break from the painting I've been doing lately. "What painting?" you ask? I know your just dying to see so here it is :)

Sometimes I just need to use some color! :)

More large ZIAs

These are the latest 8x11 ZIAs I've done. They're so much fun - the second one is my favorite :) Please excuse the dark shadow on the left-hand side of the pics; my scanner does that when I can't close the window all the way. More to come...

Fengle!

I have been in love with this tangle ever since I saw it in some of the CZT's work, so I was thrilled to receive the instructions to it in the newest Zentangle newsletter! It's funny how easy it is when you know how :) I made this tile yesterday in anticipation of Monday's challenge; I had a feeling it would be Fengle! I love this tangle so much I might even do another tile and enter it later in the week :)

Spiral and Paradox Challenge

Here's my entry in the Diva's Challenge #62, using both spiral and paradox in a tile. Fun! (I enjoy doing my paradox a little different, with no pattern, using various shapes together).

Challenge #60

This week's Diva Challenge is to use ONLY tangles Cirquital and Munchin in a tile. I really enjoy these types of challenges that tell me which tangles to use - less thinking for me!

I'm also excited because my local art store was having a sale on paper and I picked up an 8.5 x 11 hardbound notebook. It's fun to do large-size zentangles; I like the freedom of space and possibility it gives me. Here's a picture of my first page:

I'm finishing up my second page now. Fun, fun fun!:)

Diamond Duo

This week's Diva Challenge is to use diamonds in a zentangle in support of  The Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital which helps in the fight against pediatric cancer. I can't think of a more worthy cause!

These are actually the same tile. I made the one of top first, then decided to color the background black and add a white gelly roll pen design. I find it interesting how the orientation of the tile makes such a big difference.

Have a great day, everybody!

Diva Challenge 57

This week's Diva Challenge is the first in a series which will use various people's tangles as inspiration each week. The first tangle is called 'Sanibelle,' created by Tricia Faraone. I like this tangle, even though it's hard for me to do; I'm not very good at flowy tangles, I'm more of a grid girl!

I haven't actually used a zentangle tile in a while so it was really fun to work on this small scale. I've been busy completing my Sketchbook Project 2012. You can check out the slideshow on the right if you would like :)

Thanks!

Purple Zen

And now for something completely different...

Last night I made my second ZIA. Purple to match the challenge, of course. It doesn't come across in the picture very well, but there's a lot of sparkle in this piece because I used more metallic pens (I'm a little bit obsessed)!

And now back to working on my sketchbook challenge project. Lots of work to do before the end of the month. Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

For me, last year was all about learning new things. I learned a lot about myself, and I learned a new art form called Zentangle, which has become a huge passion! This year, I want to continue to learn and grow. And as with all things, I'm beginning with baby steps, like finally learning to use the scanner on my printer! Here is my latest zentangle that I've scanned, cropped, and enhanced.

I think it looks much better than my usual photos, and it was a lot easier! So far I'm liking this new year thing, now let's see what tomorrow brings! :)